Rezoning has been approved for a new waterfront hotel in Amherstburg.
A special council meeting was held before the town's regular council meeting Monday night, where residents heard about plans for the four-storey hotel which includes 91 rooms and 78 parking spaces.
In October of 2018, Amico announced plans to build the boutique-style hotel as part of a $120-million dollar development along the town's waterfront.
Company spokesperson, Cindy Prince says a lot of preliminary work has been done in anticipation of zoning approval for the location on Dalhousie St. and Gore St.
Prince says Amico wants to do whatever it takes to make the plan work for everyone.
"Working through their detailed plans for their park and to have a hotel immediately across from that on the water front is a really unique opportunity," she says. "I think it's a great opportunity for Amico and a really good opportunity for the town."
She tells AM800 News the hotel may even be smaller after conversations with the Heritage Committee — also with neighbours — who had raised traffic and parking concerns.
She hopes everyone can really roll up their sleeves with the development and operations teams and get a complete plan together this summer.
"That's going to inform us of what sort of amenities we should include in this building, how many units there should be, what the nightly rates should be. All of those types of considerations that we need to know so that we sit down and work out the economics of the development," says Prince.
Deputy Mayor Leo Meloche says the town's tourist industry can finally keep people in town, long-term.
"A big boost on tourism because the biggest concern from a lot of people is that there's nowhere to stay," says Meloche. "We're attracting a large group of people to the area here to use our facilities, but they're all staying in Windsor and eating in Windsor."
Some residents mentioned parking and traffic concerns, but Meloche says Amico has been proactive and has no plans to go too big on the project.
He's confident people will be happy when an official site plan comes back to council.
More public input and town approvals are still on the horizon — so Prince isn't sure when ground will break on the new hotel — the hope is it will be sometime this year.
She also says an exact cost estimate on the multimillion dollar project will become more apparent once they get an idea of the actual size of the hotel.